LEE COUNTY — Thousands of people in Lee County are having to wait for their trash to get picked up.
The delay is due to a strike at one of the county’s contractors: Advanced Disposal. When we spoke a company representative, they said the company is disappointed that a small group of workers chose to strike while they work out issues.
The result has been trash being left out for days, and customers are starting to speak out about it.
“Very disappointing. Thank goodness our garbage can is not too full this week, so that’s a good thing," said Jack Gray, who was still waiting for his trash to be picked up when we spoke with him Thursday.
Gray is one of the 51,000 homeowners affected by the slowdown in service due to the strike. The county responded to the issue in a Facebook Live Thursday afternoon.
“We believe at this time that garbage collection will be completely cleaned up by Saturday. That’s our expectations," said Lee County Solid Waste Director Doug Whitehead.
But like many of these homeowners, Gray isn’t going happy if it takes that long.
“We don’t need to have all this garbage sitting out for two, three, four days. That’s terrible, absolutely terrible," said Gray.
Advanced Disposal says it has brought in employees from outside Lee County to get the work done, and it says the county has extended hours at the landfill to help meet the demand.
We have not yet spoken with the workers who are striking, but the company says it is communicating with them to try to meet their demands. Advanced Disposal said it is urging the employees to come back to their jobs while they resolve the dispute.
